But he could not muddy up his mind with rage or worry. Not even hope. Hope was too personal. In real life cops didn’t work cases they were close to, and this was why. He needed to be thinking, cold and clear.

“She messed up,” he told them, so calm. He’d found his old cop voice, rusty from disuse. “She gave us the other child’s name and approximate age. There will be news stories about a missing toddler, and this one had an unusual name.”

“How does that help?” Gabrielle said, overwhelmed.

“Until now we had only two points, Spence and Trey, connected by the line of a legal case. Geoff is a third point, a way to triangulate. When we find the lines connecting Geoff’s parents, the right case file will be inside the shape they all make together. Inside that file we’ll find the woman who took Robert. We need her real name.”

With the real name, maybe, just maybe, he could get Robert back. If he was willing to be ruthless. He didn’t have to mull it over. He was willing. He was past willing. He could feel a coming violence, like a prickling carbonation in his blood. This was yet another reason cops were not allowed to work on cases close to them.

Gabrielle burst into motion, pushing off the doorway. “We should have called the police. They would have traced that call. We’d know exactly where she is.” Her words came blurting out, all rush and tumble, a road straight to regret.

“No,” Marshall cut in, firm and cool. They could not indulge in woulda-coulda-shoulda. He saw only one path that might get them all the way to Robert. It was full of switchbacks and deadfalls, but it was a path, and he was on it. “We got this. I have a plan.” Well, the seeds of one. “Remember, if Bree had called the cops first thing, Robert would be dead already.”

Bree flinched, but it was good for her to hear these words. Like every parent living, she’d be looking for a way to make this her fault.

She looked up at him with drowning eyes. “Maybe we should call them now?”

“No,” he said. He looked at Gabrielle and was glad to see her nodding, backing his play. Bree could end up in prison and still lose her baby. And as murder/suicide plans went, this one felt pretty tight. He could see six thousand ways it could go ass up if they called the cops. “She’s tied the baby to her body, which makes snipers or gas or a breach too risky. She doesn’t care if she lives, so they can’t negotiate. That’s every choice the cops have. They have to stay inside the law. They have limits.” He held Bree’s gaze. “We don’t. All I need is her name. She has a weak point.”